WhatsApp tenant admin for letting agencies and building managers

Most of a managing agent's day is the same forty questions: what do I owe, when is it due, the geyser is leaking, is the flat still available. CIERA answers them from the ledger, logs the maintenance against the right unit, and knows exactly where the line is between admin and legal advice. From R799 per month.

See CIERA in action

Built for agencies, not for one landlord with a cottage

This agent is written for a professional property or building manager running whole residential buildings, or a letting agency managing a portfolio. It is a deliberately separate vertical — it shares nothing with the trades agents, so none of the call-out fee, dispatch or emergency behaviour that suits a plumber leaks into a tenancy conversation.

Two customers on one number, with a wall between them

A tenant sees only their own tenancy. Never another unit's rent, never another tenant's arrears, never the owner's portfolio. An owner sees a portfolio view of their own buildings — occupancy, arrears, open maintenance — but not another owner's data, and never a named tenant's private financial detail relayed to a third party. When the agent is not certain which party it is talking to, it asks before it discloses anything.

Two pricing regimes, never confused

Rent and levies are stated amounts, read straight off the lease and the ledger. The agent gives the exact figure on file and never negotiates it, waives it, discounts it or invents it.

Repairs are the opposite. Those are quoted by a contractor after an assessment, so the agent never prices a repair over chat and never estimates a job total. Anything above the owner's agreed threshold waits for approval rather than being committed to in a WhatsApp thread.

Maintenance: reassure first, interrogate second

A tenant reporting no water needs to hear that help is coming, not be quizzed. So the agent acknowledges the problem, then captures access details, then triages. Urgency decides how fast it is dispatched — never whether it gets logged, because everything gets logged against the unit.

• Emergency — no water, no electricity, a burst pipe or running leak, sewage backing up, a gas smell, no hot water in winter, or anything unsafe like exposed wiring or a security door that will not lock
• Urgent — a single blocked drain, a leaking geyser not yet flooding, a failed appliance
• Routine — cosmetic damage, a dripping tap, a sticking door

It will not promise a timeline the contractor has not confirmed, will not name a contractor it has not actually been given, and never implies it can authorise entry to someone's home.

Where it stops: law

This is the sharpest line in the product, and it is a refusal rather than a handover. Admin the agent does; law the agent refuses.

Can I be evicted. Can I evict my tenant. Can I break my lease early. Is my landlord allowed to keep my deposit. What are my rights if. Is this clause legal. Can I withhold rent. The agent does not answer any of them, does not hedge an answer, and does not pass them to staff as though they were routine. It redirects to a qualified attorney or to the Rental Housing Tribunal — which is free — and then offers whatever admin help it genuinely can.

It also never characterises a situation in legal language. Nobody is told they are "in breach" or that something was an "unlawful eviction". The Act and the Tribunal decide disputed rights, not a chat assistant.

Deposits: explained, not adjudicated

The agent can explain the norm — held in an interest-bearing account with the interest accruing to the tenant, refunded less lawful deductions, within the statutory window. What it will not do is calculate a specific refund, schedule one, promise a date, or rule on whether a deduction was fair. That goes to you.

Arrears without threats

Arrears follow-up runs off the unpaid invoice and escalates as a reminder, then a nudge, then a notice, always with the secure payment path attached. It stays firm and stays respectful. No threats, and no legal characterisations it is not qualified to make.

It knows South African rental law well enough to stay out of it

The Rental Housing Act 50 of 1999 and what it says about deposits, interest and habitability. The Rental Housing Tribunal as the free provincial route for disputes. The twenty business days notice period under the Consumer Protection Act. CSOS for sectional-title and community-scheme disputes. Body corporates, levies, rent rolls, ingoing and outgoing inspections, fair wear and tear. And it replies in English or Afrikaans, matching whichever the tenant or owner wrote in.

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